Safe, a Thieves in Time story 6
by Orion Lyonesse
Summary: When Vila finds a 14-year-old Avon aboard the Liberator, can he save the boy without erasing the adult Avon? A bit of time travel involving two Avons, with Vila to sort it all out. Follows 'Encounter with Violence.' Newly edited and updated.
1. The Appearance

A/N: This is Chapter 6 of Thieves in Time, following Encounter with Violence. Something's bothering Vila and turns out to be a 14-year-old Avon!

This is a romp for Vila, something to relieve the tension from the last chapter and show how Vila and Avon's relationship is changing.

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Vila couldn't sleep, which wasn't normal for the thief. It's more normal for Avon, he thought. Even though it was deep into the late night watch, something nibbled at Vila's consciousness, something he couldn't pin down.

Finally giving in to his subconscious, he got up, dressed, and left his cabin to restlessly prowl the ship's silent corridors. He didn't know what he was looking for, only that he wouldn't find it on the brightly-lit flight deck where Kerr Avon by his own preference stood late watch alone.

Vila pursued his phantoms through the dim corridors and uninhabited passageways of Liberator, looking for whatever was calling to him. He was deep in barely explored territory when he heard a sound that froze him in his tracks - someone crying, but no one he could identify, exactly. Cat-footed, he crept up on the source. At the final corner, he peeked around cautiously.

"Avon," he muttered softly in astonishment.

But it wasn't Avon, exactly, at least not his current Avon. Who or what he saw most resembled his memory of a 14-year-old Avon, gangly, dark-haired, dark-eyed, still unsure of his rapidly growing body and often not in control of his changing voice.

But Vila had never seen Avon, at any age, sitting on the floor with his head on his knees, backed into a corner, crying. Even when Vila rescued him from the kidnapper when they were both six*, Avon hadn't cried. He'd been furious! True, Vila admitted to himself, there had been the glimmer of tears in the young Avon's eyes later that same day as his father towed him away from Vila and Vila's family.

This, though, was heart-rending and Vila could delay no longer. Moving toward the boy, he knelt and gathered him into his arms. Avon stiffened at first in surprise, then, seeing Vila's face, wrapped his arms in a near strangle-hold around Vila's neck and buried his head in Vila's shoulder. He ceased crying, though he still shook in Vila's arms for a few moments more.

In a gesture totally anathema to Vila's Avon, the boy drew back and wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve before meeting Vila's eyes for a brief moment. Then he went suddenly shy and looked away.

"Hullo, Vila," he said shyly.

"Avon?" Vila began uncertainly. "What are you doing here, and for that matter, how and why are you here - I mean, at this age? Right now, your adult self is standing watch." Vila was severely confused, but, as the adult here, he knew he had to take charge - at least that was the way he'd been raised. However, this was Avon and even at 14 Avon had been the natural leader of the pair. Vila felt he needed a lot more information to clear up this puzzle.

The youth reverted to logic now, as his adult counterpart always had.

"You mean I'm already here, as an adult? Vila, where is here? I don't even know exactly how I got here, I just was here, in this place that isn't at all familiar. I knew I was looking for you, but I've wandered about here for hours and finally I…gave up. I…was afraid you'd never come find me." He looked up, a smile lighting his face at last. "But you did! Now we can fix this problem together," he finished, with more assurance than Vila felt.

"Problem?" Vila knew Avon hated it when he echoed his words, but Vila was still at sea in this whole matter. "I think we'd better go somewhere more comfortable and talk, huh?" He stood and held out his hand to Avon. He thought for a moment that the boy was too grown up to accept his guidance and implied reassurance, but after a moment's debate that showed clearly in the troubled brown eyes, he reached out and clasped Vila's proffered hand firmly.

"Okay, Vila." The trust these two had built up over the years spoke loudly from those two words.

They followed the passage to an unused crew cabin, put on the lights, and made themselves comfortable. Even though it was "night", Vila feared to take Avon to his own cabin. Even if he locked his own door, Avon could, with provocation, pick the lock as handily as Vila himself, a skill the thief had taught Avon at about the age of the boy sitting beside him.

Though very confused, Vila still took the initiative. "Avon, how can you be here at, what, 14," he asked, "and be up on the flight deck, as a grownup? At the same time? Have you any idea how much of a…paradox this is?"

Avon smiled and cocked his head at Vila. "Learned a new word, have we, friend?"

Vila laughed, both at the comment and to hear again the bantering he'd so much enjoyed.

"That and a lot more besides. After all, I'm twenty years older than you are." He fell serious again. "Spill it. What's going on? Why are you here - not that I'm not glad to see you, you understand, just…startled."

*See 'Glimpse into the Past, a Thieves in Time story.'

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A/N: How has Avon managed being in two bodies as once – and two ages? Can Vila fix whatever problem Avon's presenting him with? Find out in Part Two: The Story.


	2. The Story

"I'm twenty years older than you are," Vila said. "Spill it. What's going on? Why are you here - not that I'm not glad to see you, you understand, just…startled."

"Vila, you're babbling," Avon interrupted fondly.

"Yeah, right. So tell me, please, what's going on?" he prodded.

"I need your help, Vila," he replied calmly.

"I figured that, but which you needs help-Avon or…you, Avon? This is so confusing," Vila said, running a hand through his thinning blond hair.

"Listen, Vila, to keep us straight, why don't you call my adult self Kerr and continue to call me Avon?" he proposed reasonably.

Vila choked, then sputtered, "Call him…Kerr! He'd have my head for that!"

Young Avon frowned, looking at him measuringly. "Sometimes you act like such a coward, Vila, not at all like that brave six-year-old that saved me. I know you're not a coward, though, so it's all right." He considered for a second, then sighed. "Okay, if it'll make you happier, call me Kerr, at least for now, and him Avon." Vila had often wondered why the idea of being called Kerr seemed to bother the adult Avon so much. Obviously it affected the child Avon, too.

Vila nodded and muttered under his breath, "At least that way I can't slip up later and get killed for calling him Kerr!"

Not to be put off any longer, Vila demanded, "Come on, Avon…Kerr, I know that look. What have you gotten yourself into this time?" He wanted answers. Now.

"Remember when you taught me to pick locks?"

He nodded. Avon had been an able student with nimble fingers, almost Vila's equal. Avon's practice, though, if Vila remembered rightly, had often gotten him in trouble.

"Well," the boy began, looking sheepish and defiant at once, "I'm afraid I've gotten myself into a fix I can't get out of."

Vila knew how hard that was for Kerr to admit. To hear Avon talk, he didn't need anyone, much less Vila. Of course Vila knew that, like his own cowardice, was a pose. He raised an eyebrow, encouraging Kerr to go on.

"I was…exploring," he began. Vila knew that was his way of saying he'd escaped his familial residence and tutors to adventure on his own. "And I got myself locked into someplace I can't get out of."

"So you just sit tight and take your lumps when they open it," Vila advised. He'd had to do that a couple of times early in his own career - about age eight, if he remembered correctly.

"That won't work this time. See, I'm locked in a big, air-tight safe with only the air I brought in with me." He smiled ruefully at Vila. "I forgot to block the door, like you said to do, and it closed behind me while I was going through the drawers inside. I dropped my torch and it broke."

Over the boy's face crept a look of fear Vila couldn't remember seeing on the youth before. It made him look so very young.

"Vila, with no light in there, I haven't a chance of picking the lock from the inside. I'm sunk. My calculations lead me to believe the air will run out well before they open in the morning." He shivered and looked up desperately at Vila. "You've got to help me, Vila, please."

"Calm down, Kerr, of course I'll help you, but I need more information. For starters, how the heck did you get HERE?"

"Oh, that," Kerr began, regaining possession of his composure. "I've been studying the time displacement theories of J. M. Barrie in theoretical physics."

Vila groaned. He should have known better than to give Kerr an opening to lecture him on something too technical for him to understand.

"Wait just a minute!" Vila interrupted, putting up a hand. "I don't want to hear any theoretical physics, chapter and verse. Just tell me simply. You know how dumb I am."

Kerr smiled at Vila's patently untrue statement. "Well, simply put, then," he lectured, "a body, that is a person, can travel in time if he wishes hard enough. Vila, I was desperate! I knew I'd die, so I…wished for you. I got dizzy, disoriented, and found myself in this place, wherever or whenever this is." He looked around, taking in the spare surroundings and feeling the throb of Liberator's engines.

He returned his attention to Vila. "I don't know why I traveled this far into the future to find you, though," he said, clearly puzzled.

Brushing that mystery aside for the moment, Vila asked, "Tell me about the lock. What's it on and how'd you open it in the first place? Details, I gotta have details, young man.

As Kerr described the lock and its surroundings, Vila understood why Kerr had traveled so far in time to find him.

"Well, that's it then," he said when the boy had finished his descriptions. "I'll just go get my tools and a light and some oxygen and we'll be off."

He sounded almost jaunty to Kerr and very self-assured. "That's it? Just, let's go?" he said in disbelief, rising to follow Vila out of the cabin.

Vila stopped, blocking the doorway with his body and spread arms. "Whoa, there, you stay here! I can't take a chance of your being seen or, come to think of it, you seeing anything, either. Don't want to influence the time line, do we? I'll be right back." He paused, then asked, "You hungry?" He knew Avon had been hungry constantly at that age, just as he himself had been.

"YES!" came the emphatic reply.

Vila laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll get you something to eat along with my kit. Now," he paused meaningfully, "I trust you'll stay right here and not get into any more mischief till I return?" He raised an eyebrow and waited for an answer.

"Must I, Vila?" Kerr asked, looking longingly at the corridor beyond the door.

"You know you have to, so just accept it."

"Okay, Vila. I'll stick around here. Now hurry! I'm starving right before your very eyes!"

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A/N: Could it be as easy as that? With Avon, probably not! Watch for Part Three: The Plan.


	3. The Plan

**Chapter Three: The Plan**

Chuckling to himself as he went, Vila left the boy and took the shortest route back to his cabin for his tool kit. Soon, he was on his way back to Kerr, with just a stop for food and another stop for oxygen left.

As he entered the kitchen area, a soft velvety voice froze him to the deck.

"Do you really think you'll need your lock pick kit to get a late night snack, Vila?"

Vila turned slowly, finding the tech leaning a hip against a counter, a snack of his own resting upon it. He looked amused, curious to find the thief up so late (or early?), roaming the corridors with his kit.

Vila looked down at the kit in his hand as though surprised to find it there. Avon, bored, just crossed his arms and waited, anticipating an interesting tale as the thief tried to explain himself.

Vila, seeing Avon's tiny smile of anticipation and remembering the boy anxiously waiting his return, pushed past the astonished Avon. "Sorry, Avon, no time. Tell you later. Uh, maybe."

Grabbing up boxed drinks and a plateful of leftovers from the refrigeration unit, Vila passed Avon again and was gone before the tech could frame a question.

Shaking his head, Avon went back toward the flight deck, musing, _By now, I should be used to his ways, but somehow he still manages to surprise me, just like the first time we met._

For his part, Vila had rushed down several corridors at random, then pressed his back to a wall and slid down it, to puddle at it's base, quivering.

_That was too close! There was no way I could explain away my kit and presence to Avon. Thank goodness he didn't get pushy about it. If I'm lucky, I'll never have to explain it. I hope!_

Regaining his composure, Vila stood, assessed his location and started off again, picking up gear as he went.

As he'd half-expected, Kerr wasn't where he'd left him. Following his instincts, Vila searched several adjacent areas before finding the boy in an auxiliary computer room, enthusiastically examining the equipment. There were even some panels already open.

Thoroughly engrossed in his investigations, Kerr didn't hear Vila enter. A discreet cough startled him. Spinning about, he found Vila leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed, the equipment and food at his feet.

"I thought you were going to stay in the cabin, Kerr. This," he gestured around the room, "isn't the cabin."

"Aw, Vila, you know I can't stand not knowing things." Vila did indeed know that particular trait of Avon's. He had a brief, queasy feeling that perhaps he hadn't gotten off scot free in the kitchen with Avon, the adult, yet.

"Right, but you told me you'd stay there," he sulked.

The boy turned, gesturing at the systems around him. "Vila, these computers are fantastic! I've never even heard of any this sophisticated!" Kerr enthused.

"Yeah, I know. Avon keeps telling me that. Well, considering that we're decades in your future and these are beyond anything the Federation has, even now, well, I guess you'd never have heard of their like," Vila explained. "Come on, put those panels back and let's get going. We have a safe to open, young man."

After Kerr had closed things and ravenously devoured the food, Vila asked, "Now what? How do we get you and me back to…you?" For an instant, Kerr looked lost, his brow furrowing. Then, "Well, the best idea I have to be sure we arrive at the same time and place, is for us to hold your tools and…hug."

"Hug? That's it? Just…hug?" Vila shook his head. "Wonderful. Then I guess you'll think us back then…er, there?" he asked, picking up his kit and gesturing for Kerr to get the rest of the equipment.

"Right," the boy answered, with more confidence than he felt.

"Well, let's get on with it. 1, 2, 3, hug."

They did, but nothing happened. Kerr looked up into Vila's face with something akin to panic in his eyes.

"It didn't work, Vila."

"Then try again and concentrate harder," he advised Kerr, close to panic himself, though it was mostly at the thought that if they didn't succeed, Kerr Avon, the adult, might cease to exist.

"Right."

Kerr closed his eyes, hugged Vila very tightly, and concentrated mightily.

Nothing.

"That does it," Vila exclaimed, pulling out of the hug.

"What'll we do, Vila?" Kerr appeared close to tears.

"Only one thing for it, Kerr." Vila heaved a long sigh. "We'll have to bring Avon in on this."

Kerr blanched. "Avon?" he squeaked. "I thought you said that would change things, for him to know. I'm confused, Vila."

"Well, that makes two of us. Look," Vila said, stooping slightly to be eye to eye with Kerr. "If I'm right, either he'll remember this episode from his…your…past and it won't matter, or you'll forget it in his past. He's already in your future. If you see what I'm getting at." Vila ran a nervous hand through his hair. The convolutions of this time problem were giving him a headache.

Kerr nodded, acceding to Vila's logic. Vila stored that nod away to savor later. It wasn't often he knew more than Avon and had it acknowledged. _I'll have to add this to my treasures_, he thought.

They made the long trek to the flight deck, with Vila barely able to prevent his youthful companion from making forays into interesting rooms along the way. Kerr wasn't particularly quiet about his enthusiasm, either.

When they entered the passageway leading to the flight deck, Vila stopped, raised an eyebrow at Kerr and said, "Shhhh…"

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A/N: Can our Avon save his youthful self? Stay tuned for Part Four: Future Past.


	4. Future Past

As they descended the steps, Avon had his back to them, standing near Zen checking something or other. At the sound of their steps, he turned-and froze as Kerr came out of Vila's shadow. Then he relaxed.

"Oh, it's you," he said matter-of-factly. "I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up." He turned to complete his task, then motioned them to join him on the lounge area.

Vila and Kerr looked blankly at each other, shrugged in unison, and complied.

Vila was fascinated, watching Avon meet…Avon. Those identical dark eyes measured, catalogued, probed, then both of them smiled.

_Will wonders never cease! It's going to be all right!_ The relief of it all almost turned Vila into a pile of noodles.

"Well, Kerr, I've been expecting you for awhile now. What kept you?" Avon asked familiarly.

"I don't know. I really haven't a firm idea how this is all happening, let alone the timing," the boy answered seriously. "We tried to return to help me out, but it didn't work. So, we came to you. Can you help us?" he asked simply, trusting his adult self implicitly.

"I certainly hope so, or I might cease to exist here and now," Avon answered. "As I recall, the problem was in the imaging process. You, Kerr, knew what it was like when…um, where you came from, but Vila didn't and you alone weren't strong enough to take both of you back there. The trick is to put you both in a place resembling where you came from, so Vila can boost your power back," he concluded.

Vila interrupted the mirror conversation to ask, "You mean we need to be in a safe?" He definitely didn't like the sound of that.

"No, Vila," Avon said irritably. "You just need to be in a dark place the same shape and size as Kerr's safe, just to get the overall feel of it. That should be enough. So," the tech continued, "we simply need a place to leave from that has Kerr's measurements."

Vila brightened, thinking of a shortcut. "Don't Kerr's dimensions sound familiar, Avon?" He smiled, thinking that for the second time tonight he knew something neither Avon knew.

But it wasn't to be.

"Of course, Vila. I remember this incident, after all." He turned to Kerr. "Your safe is the same size as the teleport bay, with sides, of course. So we'll simply fit a cover over it. Zen, keep watch. I'll be in the teleport bay, if I'm needed."

*CONFIRMED*

Kerr jumped as Zen's deep voice came seemingly out of nowhere.

"Who said that?" he asked, his voice cracking.

Avon answered with a smile as he stood to lead the parade off the flight deck, "That was our ship's computer."

"Fascinating," Kerr breathed, hastily picking up their equipment to follow.

They made quick work of covering the teleport platform with a moveable panel. Then it was time to try again - and time for Kerr to take his leave of Avon.

Young Kerr turned to the older Avon. "I feel I should be thanking you for helping us, but that's illogical. You are merely guaranteeing your own survival, a very logical strategy. However, I still wish to thank you." He held out his hand.

Avon, startled, eyed the boy and the hand before reaching to clasp it solemnly with his own. "Yes, you're correct. It's been…interesting, meeting you. Take care of Vila for me and send him back as soon as possible. We don't want to warp the time line too much, do we?"

With Kerr and Vila inside the teleport platform, Avon closed them in with the wall, and waited.

To his surprise, he immediately heard pounding on the wall from the inside. Removing it, he began, "Vila, what is it…" He trailed off as he realized Kerr was no longer there and Vila was rather dirtier than moments before.

"How long have I been gone, Avon? It felt like hours! The lock was simple, with the light and my experience," Vila babbled, glad to be home with only his Avon to worry about. "Of course, you already know how it all came out, don't you?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, Vila, I know," he said softly, a faraway look in his eyes. "You released me, and I shut you back in the safe for your trip back here. Then I returned home without getting caught. The whole escapade convinced me that thieving wasn't the way for me to make my mark; computers were. Seeing, touching, hearing Liberator's computers changed my whole focus."

"I remember, Avon! About that time you changed your course of study, over your father's objections, to computers." Vila sighed. "We didn't have much time together after that, for awhile, so I guess you never got around to telling me why you changed."

"Yes, well, that's over. Let's put this wall away, shall we? Then," he hesitated slightly, "how about sharing a drink with me while I finish my watch?" Avon asked, lifting the wall in concert with Vila.

Vila, however, nearly dropped the wall on his own foot. "A drink? With you? Alone?"

"Vila, you're babbling again," Avon interrupted, smiling fondly at Vila. "This whole episode has served to…remind me of our past together. Maybe I'm getting sentimental in my old age."

"Sentimental? Old age? I doubt it. Oh, by the way, I figured out what took Kerr so long to come to me. The safe's locking mechanism was the same kind I encountered on our last mission. Even with light it was hard for me to figure out from behind the lock. Without light, I doubt I'd have ever been able to open it. That's why Kerr waited. I didn't have the knowledge to help him till now."

"A very logical deduction, Vila. I'd always wondered about the timing."

And for the second time that night, Vila added a moment to his treasure trove of memories.

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A/N: After this satisfying adventure together, things change for the better between Avon and Vila. Follow their new path in the next chapter/story: …Ever I Saw Your Face.


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